In the field of irrigation systems, the drip system has become one of the most widely used water delivery methods. In conventional drip irrigation systems, water is carried in drip hoses generally along rows of plantings. At the location of each plant, a dripper or drip head is inserted into the hose to form a conduit. The generally hollow dripper thus allows water to flow into the dripper and dispense the water one drip at a time. However, due to the relatively small discharge volume of the dripper, its water delivery passage and openings are prone to obstruction by sand, soil, debris, mineral deposits, algae and bacterial matter that have accumulated in the system. The concentration of foreign matter is the greatest at the start of each irrigation cycle due to accumulation between cycles when there is no water flow through the system. In addition, since a drip line has many valleys, bacteria and algae grows in the water accumulated in the valleys. The farm or orchard operator must therefore examine each dripper periodically to ensure each is function properly. If a plugged dripper is found, it must be removed from the hose to be cleaned or replaced. It is obvious that this an extremely time consuming process since a typical farming operation or orchard may use thousands of such drippers in its irrigation system.
In the field of mining, drippers are used in heap leach applications to deliver the heap leach solution, such as cyanide or sulfuric acid, to the mined rock pile. Conventional drippers used in the heap leach mining applications suffers from the serious drawback of clogging after very short periods of operation due to the heavy mineral content of the heap leach solution. Further, most conventional drippers are not capable of draining the water from the hose after the pump or valves are shut off. Because most conventional drippers have labyrinthine passageways and water surface tension, they require some pressure to force the remaining water out of the hoses. This presents a problem in freezing climates.
In the field of industrial cleaning, ultrasound has been the method of choice for cleaning fine and small parts. Because ultrasound causes vibrations of over 40,000 cycles per second of very short wavelengths, the energy can only be used in small tanks with solvents.
Some drippers in the market provide flushing capabilities, but they use many times more water during static flushing in comparison with the drip cycle. Therefore, these systems require an irrigation system with greater capacity and pipe sizes and a large amount of water in a short time, it is expensive, unfeasible and some times impossible when well water is used.
Accordingly, there is a substantial need for a device that provides for automatic flushing of particles and drainage of water from the system to prevent obstruction of water delivery and dispensing. There is a further need for a dripper that facilitates the flushing and unplugging automatically without manually checking the dripper devices and lines in the field.